Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts
NY Times ^ | October 2, 2007 | ANDREW C. REVKIN

Posted on 10/02/2007 1:50:53 AM PDT by neverdem

The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia.

Over all, the floating ice dwindled to an extent unparalleled in a century or more, by several estimates.

Now the six-month dark season has returned to the North Pole. In the deepening chill, new ice is already spreading over vast stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Astonished by the summer’s changes, scientists are studying the forces that exposed one million square miles of open water — six Californias — beyond the average since satellites started measurements in 1979.

At a recent gathering of sea-ice experts at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Hajo Eicken, a geophysicist, summarized it this way: “Our stock in trade seems to be going away.”

Scientists are also unnerved by the summer’s implications for the future, and their ability to predict it.

Complicating the picture, the striking Arctic change was as much a result of ice moving as melting, many say. A new study, led by Son Nghiem at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and appearing this week in Geophysical Research Letters, used satellites and buoys to show that winds since 2000 had pushed huge amounts of thick old ice out...

--snip--

Still, many of those scientists said they were becoming convinced that the system is heading toward a new, more watery state, and that human-caused global warming is playing a significant role.

--snip--

In essence, Arctic waters may be behaving more like those around Antarctica, where a broad fringe of sea ice builds each austral winter and nearly disappears in the summer. (Reflecting the different geography and dynamics at the two poles, there has been a slight increase in sea-ice area around Antarctica in recent decades.)

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agw; arcticregions; climatechange; globalwarming
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061 next last
To: montag813

Leftists have trouble with dynamical systems. Marx’s critique of capitalism was based on the assumption that it would always exist as it did in the early ‘wild’ ‘robber barron’ phase. They can’t understand that tax cuts increase revenue, while tax increases decrease revenue, because they assume that the economy is static. They never understand any example of the ‘law of unintended consequences’ because they assume if you change something, you change only what you change without disturbing the dynamics of the system: thus they deny that the court decision extending AFDC to unwed mothers with illegitimate children had anything to do with the rise in illegitimate births or the number of women raising children alone.

When they see change, they assume someone must be ‘doing something’ to cause it, and that the government can ‘do something’ to fix it, or cause more change it, depending on whether they like the change or not. There’s actually something ironic about their doctrinaire insistence on Darwinian evolution, seeing that they assume all other change is driven by intelligent actors (including climate change).


41 posted on 10/02/2007 6:09:52 AM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

later


42 posted on 10/02/2007 6:17:29 AM PDT by I_be_tc
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
...beyond the average since satellites started measurements in 1979Wow......beyond the 28 year average. How unprecedented....
43 posted on 10/02/2007 6:22:50 AM PDT by ElectricStrawberry (1/27 Wolfhounds...cut in half during the Clinton years.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
I can remember a winter a few years ago in Europe. I was cold and the wind was right out of Siberia. usually people would talk while waiting for the bus. Not this morning. Everyone was freezing and wishing th bus was here already when one guy in the back of the group broke the silence and said “Man! Those global warming people are full of C***!” We all broke up. My friend in London said it was 35 for a high the other day and windy. The global warming must only affect polar bears - luck bast****!
44 posted on 10/02/2007 6:44:18 AM PDT by truemiester (If the U.S. should fail, a veil of darkness will come over the Earth for a thousand years)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wolfcreek

As the man says it has piled up on Anarctica, where
the main parts are at record cold temps.Hundreds
of feet deep.It is as big as the continental US,
and 500 ft of snow/ice can accumulate all the water
(that the doomsayers said would be 47.54 inches
deep on wall street) that melted in the northern
hemispere very easy as long as it stays colder.
Said cold by the way if averaged in with the rest
of the world temps would actually show cooling,
overall, not warming.......We have a climate shift.
BY Anarctica being that large and that much colder,
we have the reason for no flooding.Ed


45 posted on 10/02/2007 8:06:19 AM PDT by hubel458
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: wolfcreek

> Where is the sea level rise associated with all this melting ice?

When floating ice melts, the water level doesn’t change.

Didn’t you watch Mr. Wizard?


46 posted on 10/02/2007 9:07:41 AM PDT by NCWarrior
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

Comment #47 Removed by Moderator

To: neverdem
Global Warming? 
Yep, lots of times:
 

48 posted on 10/02/2007 10:36:47 AM PDT by VxH (One if by Land, Two if by Sea, and Three if by Wire Transfer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem; All
Ice melting?

What about THIS?

There was a FR thread about this, but I couldn't locate it.

49 posted on 10/02/2007 10:51:14 AM PDT by SIDENET (I don't want to find "common ground" with a bunch of damn leftists.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The topic attracted my attention, but when I saw that the source was the NY Times, I immediately lost interest. This is not a credible publication. Any items that derive from this source are suspect. I have the same reaction when I see a “news” item from the Tehran Times or Al Jazeera.


50 posted on 10/02/2007 10:56:32 AM PDT by Blennos (High Point, NC)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
I thought scientist agreed that the Arctic sea ice melts during an interglacial maximum. So as we progress to that point, isn’t this to be expected???
51 posted on 10/02/2007 11:01:32 AM PDT by colorado tanker (I'm unmoderated - just ask Bill O'Reilly)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

bmflr


52 posted on 10/02/2007 1:05:16 PM PDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SlowBoat407
What's the going pay for being a sea-ice expert?

In cold cash or frozen assets?

Holly mackerel! This story is 6 degrees of separation from Jefferson Davis, Democrat, Louisiana.

53 posted on 10/02/2007 1:08:53 PM PDT by 6SJ7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

22 today in Fairbanks. This year’s shipping season through the Northwest Passage is about over. Any boats, barges, and ships still in the Northwest Passage need to radio for assistance so their crews can be picked up by helicopter or nuclear sub before they run out of food and have to resort to cannibalism or otherwise freeze to peoplesicles.


54 posted on 10/02/2007 1:09:04 PM PDT by RightWhale (25 degrees today. Phase state change accomplished.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Darkwolf377

MAKE SURE THERES AN ICE FLOE FOR THE FRANKENGORE


55 posted on 10/02/2007 1:49:02 PM PDT by stan_sipple
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: neverdem; OKSooner; honolulugal; Killing Time; Beowulf; Mr. Peabody; RW_Whacko; gruffwolf; ...

FReepmail me to get on or off


Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown

New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH

Ping me if you find one I've missed.



56 posted on 10/02/2007 2:57:52 PM PDT by xcamel (FDT/2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

“I’m melting...melting...Oh, what a world.”

That movie was make-believe, also.


57 posted on 10/02/2007 3:13:48 PM PDT by bubbacluck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: theBuckwheat
“It seems that the story of the recovery of this aircraft becomes one of the many contrary facts to the present theories (being assumed to be entirely true) about climate change.”

I never thought about that! I seen a story on one of the documentary channels about the recovery of that aircraft. The implication as a weather indicator never occurred to me.

58 posted on 10/02/2007 4:38:24 PM PDT by samm1148 (Pennsylvania-They haven't taxed air--yet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: SIDENET
Yes that's interesting. Here's the MODIS TERRA view of the Vilkitsky Strait on 8/26/07. The western end of it is visible at top center through the opening in the clouds with some scattered sea ice. The eastern end is obscured by clouds. This region is perpetually cloudy, it would seem, as you'll see if you search through the MODIS images.

Note also, though, that the sea is largely clear of ice. This strait is a problem, I would guess, due to the presence of the Severnaya Zemlya ( North Land ) - the chain of large islands above the strait. You can see the mini-icecaps on them through the clouds.

59 posted on 10/02/2007 5:14:48 PM PDT by dr_lew
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping.


60 posted on 10/02/2007 8:08:44 PM PDT by GOPJ (It's not the spelling ---- groupthink's killing newspapers.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson